France’s regulator launches reporting platform

Arcep, the French regulator, has launched a reporting platform that allows anyone to report any malfunction encountered in their relationship with their ISP, fixed or mobile telecoms operator, mail or parcel postal operator. This is one of the priority areas established by Arcep as part of its strategic review, as for users it creates an opportunity for their experience to influence market regulation to encourage operators to improve their services and further develop their networks. It also allows users to rapidly obtain advice tailored to their circumstances. For Arcep, the reports gathered through this platform will enable it to track the problems encountered by users in real time. It will be able to draw on recurrent malfunctions, and detect both spikes in user alerts and weak signals to target its actions, and to be more effective in its regulatory actions aimed at operators. Arcep says it is shifting from an approach of “simply gathering consumer complaints to one of reporting-based civic acts, to achieve data-driven regulation that will enable the authority to devise systemic responses that improve the way the sector works” “J'alerte l'Arcep” and the “Mon réseau mobile” (My mobile network) site, which was also launched in 2017, are two tools in a more wide-reaching strategy for modernising regulation, says the regulator. Read more